figcraft/docs/gaps.md

Where FigCraft falls short of Figma

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Change: minor (wording: live sessions, the browser joins them, invite links open the app; numbers unchanged) · Target: Figma Design (desktop app 126.10.7)

Every known shortfall against Figma, one entry each, ranked by how much it stops a Figma user from doing real work in FigCraft. Agents: pick work from the top unless the owner says otherwise. The numbers behind the ranking are in target-app-parity.md. Hours are one Opus 5.5 agent working sequentially, tests included, calibrated as described there. "Estimated" everywhere unless marked measured.

Ranked

No alpha blockers: the alpha gate in roadmap.md passes. Beta blockers are marked.

#	Gap	Kind	Hours	Doc
1	.fig files can't be opened (beta blocker)	File format	30–60	file-format-parity
2	No real-time multiplayer or sharing (beta blocker)	Feature	45–90	collaboration-parity
3	Nothing checked against real Figma files	Fidelity	15–30	target-app-parity
4	Interaction fidelity not compared tool by tool	UI/UX	40–60	ui-parity
5	No localization layer; English only	Localization	60–100	localization-parity
6	Plugins: no run-time UI, distribution or widgets; Figma's plugins don't run	Ecosystem	25–55	target-app-parity
7	CPU canvas where Figma uses the GPU	Hardware/performance	30–60	hardware-parity
8	Platform QA is mostly macOS	Stability/platforms	10–20	hardware-parity
9	Figma Draw: brushes, pressure, text on a path, pattern fills	Feature	10–18	target-app-parity
10	Shared (team) libraries	Feature	10–20	components-parity
11	Spell check	Feature	4–8	target-app-parity
12	Video and animated GIF fills; HEIC/TIFF images	File format	6–12	file-format-parity
13	Live boolean editing and the vector tail	Feature	6–10	target-app-parity
14	Variables: extended collections, import/export	Feature	4–8	components-parity
15	Prototyping: media triggers and actions, gamepad	Feature	3–6	prototyping-parity
16	Dev Mode: Code Connect, editor integrations	Feature	4–8	dev-mode-parity
17	Branching and merging	Feature	8–15	collaboration-parity
18	Display P3 on screen; one window only	Hardware	6–12	hardware-parity
19	AI features	AI	30–60	target-app-parity
20	Mobile apps (view, mirror, comment)	Platforms	20–40	hardware-parity
21	Three menu items without a command	Feature	2–4	parity-checklist
22	Screen readers never run; browser has no accessibility tree	UI/UX	4–8	ui-parity
23	CMYK output intent for print PDFs	File format	2–4	file-format-parity

Entries

1. .fig files can't be opened

• Missing: a reader for Figma's native document (com.figma.document, extensions fig, jam, deck in the installed app's Info.plist). Figma's files live in the cloud; "Save local copy" writes a .fig. Today the only way in is the REST API file JSON (file.open / file.import), which needs an access token and a separate download of images and variables.
• Evidence: no .fig code anywhere in crates/format (searched 2026-10-10); ROADMAP listed ".fig import (best effort)" as left.
• Impact: blocks beta by definition: a designer can't bring existing work across. The single biggest gap.
• Estimate: 30–60 h for a best-effort reader written from public format knowledge (a compressed binary schema plus a message per node; mapping onto the existing REST importer's model), with a corpus of synthetic .fig files saved from the installed Figma. Export to .fig is a further 15–30 h and lower priority.

2. No real-time multiplayer or sharing

• Missing: co-editing, live cursors and selections, observation mode, cursor chat, spotlight, audio, share links and permissions. Comments and versions are local to the file.
• Evidence: the core landed in #103 (crates/collab: client-scoped ids, change sets, server ordering and validation, client reconciliation, binary messages, randomized convergence tests over real commands), and live sessions run over the network (crates/collab-net: hosting from the app, invite links that open the app, document sync between apps, live cursors, selections, avatars and follow, and the browser build joins) with per-person undo, refused edits rolled back with a reason, and reconnects that resume and send what was made offline; but sessions are plain ws:// (no TLS, so an https page can only join on the same computer), and there are no share links or permissions (docs/collab-protocol.md).
• Impact: Figma's defining feature; most teams use it every day. Solo designers can work without it.
• Estimate: 45–90 h: sharing and permissions and a standalone server with TLS.

3. Nothing checked against real Figma files

• Missing: a corpus of real documents (design systems, app screens, prototypes) imported and compared with Figma's own PNG/SVG/PDF exports.
• Evidence: every corpus in the repo is synthetic (crates/svg/tests/corpus, the synthetic design system in crates/engine/src/synthetic_ds.rs). Scores were self-graded by the agents that built the features.
• Impact: unknown fidelity in auto layout sizing, text metrics, effects and component resolution on real files; the numbers in this repo can't be trusted beyond "estimated" until it exists.
• Estimate: 15–30 h once .fig or REST import of real files is available; needs files whose licence allows use (owner to supply or approve; never committed if not redistributable, see craftrules standards/test-corpora.md).

4. Interaction fidelity not compared tool by tool

• Missing: a side-by-side pass of every tool and panel: cursors, modifier keys while dragging (e.g. Ctrl to ignore snapping on macOS), hover states, popovers, menus, snapping thresholds.
• Evidence: ROADMAP item 7 ("Left: tool by tool, panel by panel against the incumbent").
• Impact: Figma users notice the feel within minutes; it decides whether they stay.
• Estimate: 40–60 h. Detail in ui-parity.md.

5. No localization layer; English only

• Missing: externalized strings and catalogs. Figma ships English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish (Spain and Latin America) and Portuguese (Brazil).
• Evidence (measured from source): ~800 distinct capitalised UI string literals in crates/ui-egui/src and 435 command labels, all inline; no catalog files.
• Impact: keeps out non-English designers, including Figma's large Japanese and Korean user bases.
• Estimate: 15–25 h for the layer and string extraction, then 3–5 h per language plus native review; 60–100 h for the 11 key languages. Detail in localization-parity.md.

6. Plugins: no run-time UI, distribution or widgets; Figma's plugins don't run

• Landed (#101): sandboxed WebAssembly plugins (wasmi, metered, memory cap, no WASI, also in the browser) acting through the command registry, one undo step per run, manifest permissions, Plugins menu, Run last plugin, Manage plugins, plugin.* commands, a Rust SDK and two examples (plugins.md).
• Missing: plugin-defined UI at run time (forms or panels a plugin returns), settings storage, distribution (a plugin directory), widgets, Community files. Figma's own plugins are JavaScript against Figma's plugin API and don't run.
• Impact: teams that depend on specific Figma plugins (icons, content, accessibility checks) can't bring them. FigCraft's CLI, control channel and MCP server cover agent automation better than Figma does.
• Estimate: 25–55 h for the missing pieces of FigCraft's own API. Running Figma's plugins needs a JS engine and an API shim: owner decision needed.

7. CPU canvas where Figma uses the GPU

• Missing: GPU rendering of the canvas. FigCraft renders with tiny-skia on the CPU (banded, parallel, retained) and shows the image through wgpu.
• Evidence (measured, cargo xtask bench): a 50k-layer page ~8 ms zoomed out with levels of detail, single-layer edits at 10k layers ~0.2 ms; full 1440×900 renders 7–15 ms at 10k layers. Heavy effects (glass, background blur, noise) and 4K/5K canvases at 2x are where CPU time grows.
• Impact: large files and effect-heavy designs; battery on laptops.
• Estimate: 30–60 h for a GPU path (vello or wgpu shaders) held to the CPU renderer as the oracle.

8. Platform QA is mostly macOS

• Missing: regular runs on Windows, Linux and the browser; real screen readers.
• Evidence: CI tests on Linux only (.github/workflows/ci.yml); release builds exist for every platform (v0.2.0) but no issue has been filed yet and the builders checked on macOS.
• Impact: unknown bugs on the platforms where FigCraft is most attractive (Linux has no Figma desktop app).
• Estimate: 10–20 h, partly human (hardware).

9. Figma Draw: brushes, pressure, text on a path, pattern fills

• Missing: stretch and scatter brushes, pen pressure for the pencil and brushes, text on a path, pattern fills, multi-edit.
• Evidence: PaintKind has solid, gradient and image only (crates/color/src/lib.rs); no pressure input anywhere; SVG text on a path imports as outlines.
• Impact: illustration-flavoured work moved into Figma Draw in 2025.
• Estimate: 10–18 h.

10. Shared (team) libraries

• Missing: libraries shared across people and files without copying them around; library analytics; swapping a whole library.
• Evidence: local library files work (publish, enable, updates with overrides kept), see components-parity.md.
• Impact: design-system teams. Builds on multiplayer's server.
• Estimate: 10–20 h after gap 2.

11. Spell check

• Missing: spelling underline and suggestions while editing text.
• Evidence: no spell-check code in the repo.
• Estimate: 4–8 h with a permissively licensed dictionary and checker (provenance per ATTRIBUTION.md).

12. Video and animated GIF fills; HEIC/TIFF images

• Missing: Figma takes JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, GIF and TIFF images and MP4, MOV and WebM video (help center, checked 2026-10-10). FigCraft decodes PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF (first frame) and BMP.
• Estimate: 6–12 h (video playback in the presenter is most of it).

13. Live boolean editing and the vector tail

• Missing: editing a boolean group's operands in place with live results, Design panel arc fields, shape builder on strokes and open paths, one-sided variable widths.
• Estimate: 6–10 h.

14. Variables: extended collections, import/export

• Missing: extended collections (a library collection extended with overrides), variables import/export, variant properties and gradient stops bound to variables.
• Estimate: 4–8 h.

15. Prototyping: media triggers and actions, gamepad

• Missing: video triggers (on media hit/end) and play/pause/mute/seek actions; gamepad input. The REST importer warns and skips them (crates/format/src/rest/proto.rs).
• Estimate: 3–6 h after video fills (gap 12).

16. Dev Mode: Code Connect, editor integrations

• Missing: mapping components to real code (Code Connect), plugins in Dev Mode, VS Code extension. FigCraft's MCP server already serves design data to agents.
• Estimate: 4–8 h.

17. Branching and merging

• Missing: branches of a file, review and merge.
• Estimate: 8–15 h (versions and Compare changes are a base).

18. Display P3 on screen; one window only

• Missing: wide-gamut colour on the canvas (egui draws sRGB, so P3 colours outside sRGB clip on screen; exports keep them); several windows (Figma's desktop app opens files in separate windows).
• Estimate: 6–12 h.

19. AI features

• Missing: Figma AI (first draft, rename layers, remove background, image generation and editing, visual search, Make).
• Estimate: 30–60 h with openly licensed local models. Owner decision needed.

20. Mobile apps

• Missing: Figma's iOS and Android apps view and comment on files and mirror prototypes. FigCraft's web build runs in mobile browsers but is not designed for touch.
• Estimate: 20–40 h for a touch-first viewer and mirror.

21. Three menu items without a command (measured)

• file.openRecent, view.outlinesSelection, view.maskOutlines (parity-checklist.md); the plugin pair landed in #101.
• Estimate: 2–4 h for the first three.

22. Screen readers never run; browser has no accessibility tree

• Evidence: AccessKit names and keyboard navigation landed (#96), checked by tests only; eframe's web backend doesn't send the tree yet.
• Estimate: 4–8 h plus human QA with VoiceOver, NVDA, Narrator and Orca.

23. CMYK output intent for print PDFs

• Evidence: CMYK conversion is a documented naive formula; no CMYK ICC profile can ship in the repository (licensing).
• Estimate: 2–4 h once an openly licensed profile is found.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-11	minor	Wording only: live sessions (#104), then the browser joining them and figcraft:// invite links opening the desktop app; percentages and hours unchanged until the next re-measure
2026-10-10	minor	Merged main after #101–#103: WASM plugins (plugins area 0% → 35% breadth, 20% ready; ecosystem 5% → 20%) and the multiplayer core without networking (multiplayer 5% → 15% breadth, 5% ready; collaboration 8% → 12%); menu breadth 97.5% → 98.5% (200/203); ready for real work ~46% → ~47%; full parity 420–790 h → 390–745 h; beta 210–380 h → 200–365 h. Fixed the stated weight sums (areas 1–16 sum to 94, total 113; percentages were already computed with those)
2026-10-10	minor	Marked beta blockers; no alpha blockers (the alpha gate passes)
2026-10-10	major	Created from the 2026-10-10 re-measure against Figma desktop 126.10.7 (replaces the gap list that lived in ROADMAP.md)